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I was down in PA for the week and fished a small private pond. The weather was rain and cold but I got a lot of smallish bass on a wacky rigged Yum Dinger, a few on a rattletrap and a lot of hits (but no hookups) on a frog in the slop as the fish were hanging right near shore. Thursday evening I cast a wacky worm next to a drain from a small retention pond and hooked into a big one. I was using light spinning with six pound test so it was a good fight, but when I tried to pull the fish up to the dock my line broke at the hook and I lost her. Ugh. Flash forward to Saturday morning, I was getting ready to go home so I cast a wacky worm where I'd hooked into that big one. I got a bite and had another nice fish. This time I was able to land it and what did I see as I reached in with my forceps to get the hook out? The Gamakatsu I'd lost two days earlier stuck in her mouth! So I not only got the fish again, I also got my hook back plus a picture of her. Since I don't get a lot of opportunities to fish for largemouth, this is likely my personal best.

Nobody gives a dang about handle backplay when the reel lasts 2 decades, has caught more 10+ lbers than you will ever wish to catch in your lifetime nd it's still going to catch thousands more fish performing flawlessly for you after an initial investment of $120 ( it was serious money 20 years ago ).

So long ass day! Felt like **** until it got ******* AMAZING!!!!!!!Fished our ass got a nice 5lbs laker! Couldn't get another fish! WE FISHED EVERYTHING!!!! Many different spots! It was a tough day! Until 2 hours left in the day! I was getting frustrated and said I only want one smallie! 5lbs or 1lbs we gota get one! So we see big fish cruising! I pitch a finesse swimbait to it! This smallie inhales it! HUGE SMALLIE! Net it! 5.5!!!!!! Wow!!!! Woooooo got my 5lbser! So stoked! Super pumped! 1st smallie of the day! So we stayed in the area knowing there's more! No more hits! So I decided to toss topwater! I catch a nice 4lbser sweet! Then a 2lbser! Next cast huge monster smokes it! Jumps clean out of the water! Fight the fish! Get it in the net! I'm like that's a ******* 6 lbser!!!!! I'm shaking and hyperventilating! I weigh it! 6.9! I CAUGHT A 6.9!!!!!! ON A TOPWATER!!!!!! Catch another 3 after that! 2 PB smallies in one day!!!!!!!!! 5.5 and 6.9 !!!!

Well on the upside, i got to fish Friday, Saturday and Sunday so you can't beat that! Friday, went to the pond near the house. Wanted to try out 2 new rods one of which was the Poison Adrena 6'6"M I picked up used on TT and other was a brand new Dobyns DX HP Spinning rod. Hooked into a pretty good one right off the bat on the Adrena (pic below) and just like the other days last week, it was all wacky senko.... This fish was guarding her fry from what i could tell after i caught it as i saw A TON of the little guys swimming around! Working my way on around the pond, saw 2 cruisers maybe 2.5-3.5lb so i tossed the worm in, felt the tap and line starts running sideways so i go to set the hook and heard a god awful SNAP. I hesitantly looked and sure enough, rod broke between the 5th and 6th guides from the tip! My heart was and still is broken.... of course i bought it second hand so have no receipt or anything of that nature went on to catch 4 other fish, all wacky senko, all on the new DX HP which is phenomenal. Saturday, hung with the wife in the AM and headed out in the afternoon to a place that's choked in lily pads, so i busted out the frog! Hadn't been there for 5 minutes and had a slurp strike on the white spro popper frog. was using the DX 704c and 40lb braid and got what felt like a solid hookset on it. i had the drag nearly locked down and this fish was stripping drag like a tow truck, i knew it was a good fish. then it decided to show itself and i had a mini heart attack. no doubt about it this was my new PB, i'm conservatively going to say it was every bit of 6lbs, but if it had gone 8 i would not have been the least bit surprised. right after showing itself, it took another run and headed straight for a logpile. about that time, my line went slack and frog floated to the top of the water got about 4 or 5 more short strikes on the frog for the rest of the day, but couldn't manage to land a single one. I'll be thinking about "the one that got away" for a while to come! Sunday, the wife decides she wants to take the kayaks out on the Chatahoochee... i shot up, got the gear and had the yaks loaded before she could even change her clothes! she doesn't often want to go so when she does, it's do or die!!! grabbed 3 rods, spinnerbait, wacky worm and jig. right off the bat, i had a nice one follow the spinnerbait back to the kayak. the water was low and clear so i could really see pretty good. just a little further down a whack on the spinnerbait, but didn't land it. then a nice run of trees was coming up and i was running the spinnerbait on the backside of each one and hooked into a nice little shoal bass, about 1.5-2lb. It had 2 of his buddies following him so i unhooked him quickly and tossed back, but didn't catch the others. i was moving quickly and wanted to catch those others so no pic, but it was a beautiful colored shoalie! so ups, caught some fish and fished 3 days straight.... downs, broke a sweet rod and lost a monster.... but that's fishing i suppose! nice pond bass ugly site.... frog city!

After a few adult beverages, I asked my mother in law if she wanted to go fishing.

I drove to the lake with my 2 man once and didn't realize until I got there that I forgot the battery at home. Just about a month ago I decided to explore a creek in my kayak. Got everything out and got the kayak on the cart before I realized I'd left my paddle at home. A couple months ago, we had just launched the boat when my bilge pump kicked on, sure sign the plug wasn't it. We pulled the boat out and laughed while it drained out. Put the boat back in the water and the bilge kicked back on 5 minutes later. We started talking and neither of us put the plug in, again.

Had a good trip out yesterday. After a long period of nothing moderately exciting to report, I feel like I've paid my dues. Went to a canal with a couple of friends and caught a cracking good zander and a nice black one too. Doesn't look like I'll get a bass trip in this year, so I need some more days like this to distract me.

I have owned 20+ Shimano baitcasters. Clearly, you do not understand what I'm saying. You want to call it backplay, then fine. Use your term, though it isn't actually a word. I'm totally done debating semantics. I'll let you be righter than me. That work for you? @GetJIgginWithIt: It isn't a bad pinion gear. 23 Shimano baitcasters do it. I'm not the only one that notices. You can't feel it while fishing, and it's not a defect, just a trait of the design. It's not something everyone might notice, it's so minor. Again, I'm done with the discussion. Sorry for using the wrong word.

ever do something this stupid? ROTFLMAO I've drove 1 1/2 hrs to the marsh launched the boat, put all my tackle in the boat & realize I left my rod & reels at home!!!

Got on the water this morning, searched my bag and realized I left all my Easy Shiners at home! Had a package of 3.6 Crazy Flappers so I stuck one on my 3/0 swimbait jig head. Separated all the appendages and flung her out. 1st cast, engaged the reel, and watched my line start swimming away seconds after splash down. All morning I was hooking up like every 3 to 4 casts. Fish wouldn't leave this thing alone, hitting it on the drop more often than not. This is a great alternative to a paddle tail. Caught largemouth, smallies, trout, and even had a 7 lb walleye smoke it while I was stroking it off the bottom. I'd crawl it, burn it, twitch it, yo yo it, didn't seem to matter. This bait is an attention getter for sure. Action packed. Went through the whole pack in about 6 hours, but it's all I threw the entire day, and a day I had. Bass as big as 4 pounds, and as little as 4 inches. Was using my new Daiwa SV103 and had a blast. I highly recommend trying these baits if you haven't already. You really can't fish it wrong, just experiment with your retrieve and hang on tight!

We caught plenty of those too. It's pretty standard to run into a ton of Smallmouth during the Crappie spawn. But I've never seen you with anything but a largemouth in your hand, so you may not know that.

I did this one just last Tuesday.

You were fishing what we call history. Lures or areas that have produced for you. You were also following general guidelines. Both are good places and things to try, but when they aren't working something 'outside the box' is often the ticket. It sounds like something changed later in the day and your bluegill bait became the color of choice. I see this a lot when conditions change throughout the day. A good bite will die and changing baits or sometimes just the color of a bait will get you back into fish. Always remember that there are no 'set in stone rules' in fishing, just guidelines. If there were, catching would be a whole lot easier.

I bought one of those spinnerbaits at dicks sporting goods that aren't packaged and just hanging on the hook.. Tied it on and used it for a while and wondered why i kept losing fish on it. Looked at the hook and there was a plastic hook guard on the hook. Fail

I went out on my dock a few days ago to test out a new rod, newly tuned reel and some new line. I posted about this previously, so i won't go into detail. Realized today that I do not have a current fishing license. In Illinois, our fishing lecense expires at the end of March. For at least 50 years I've bought a new license sometime in March. Not this year for some dumb reason. Besides being scatter-brained, this tells you how much I've been able to fish this year. to date, this year has been my poorest year of fishing. Had too much other stuff going on. And, I just retired at the end of 2015. What's up with that?

There are three kinds of lies; lies, damned lies, and statistics. - Mark Twain

There's some info here: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-to-remove-exif-metadata-from-photos-and-why-you-might-want-to/ Basically, make a copy of the image file, select the images, right click, and choose remove personal data...

Raider, I learned PLC programming 30+ years ago. Haven't been out of job since. Never been fired, laid off, or let go. The only time I changed jobs was when I wanted to. I'm not breaking my arm patting myself on the back. I'm telling you there is job security in this skill set. You've said more than once you like heavy industrial. That's cool.You're a big, strong, young guy. So was I. The operative word being "was". You want some advice? Well, I'm gonna give you some anyway. Find a community college near you that offers PLC programming courses. Sign up, and make the time commitment required to learn the subject matter. You will thank yourself. This is a very portable skill set. You've been around industry in your area. See what's being used in your area. I covered a large portion of the middle of the country, and in that area Allen-Bradley is king. They have about 95% of the market. I suspect your area is no different. RSLOGIX5, RSLOGIX500, and RSLOGIX5000. Learn those, and you can go anywhere. And you can make a lot more money. And, what the flip are working for? Fame? Go for the cash, amigo.

Dwight and I fished Smithville on Saturday as part of Corporate Challenge. We were in the second flight, but when we got to our starting spot there was nobody there. Dwight landed three fish pretty quick on a black/blue craw out of flooded grass, but only one was a keeper, and it turned out to be our big fish for the day at just over 2 pounds. I caught five or six throughout the day, but I only added one other keeper, and it was a skinny 15" fish. Most of mine came on the black/blue wobbler in the flooded grass/brush. I had a couple of followers on the squarebill, including one GIANT that followed all the way back to the boat, but I just couldn't get them to commit to it. At the end of the tourney, we made a last second run to a spot that we had already fished , and I nailed a sand bar right when I came off plane with the lower unit. Freaked out for a minute, but the lower unit was still there when I trimmed it up...just a little bit beat up. Overall, we were a little disappointed that we didn't get more keepers but still ended up third in our Division with 4.01 lbs. http://www.kccorporatechallenge.com/results/2016

Shots fired! Shots fired!!

I've De-Billed many a Crank bait in that exact manner - Good Times ~ A-Jay

To answer your question, in my opinion, in your price range, you will get a spinning setup that is much easier to deal and better quality then a baitcaster. A lot of people mentioned the Pflueger President reel which is excellent $50 range reel. I can't think of many baitcasters that are $50 that I would use the word excellent to describe. As a matter of fact, I think that sub-$100 baitcasters are probably the number one reason people get turned off to baitcasters which is a shame. As to which is better, it really gets down to how technique specific you want to get. For example, today I caught one fish on a weightless Texas rigged senko. It was on my spinning reel and he was barely moving the line. Would have been difficult with my MH BC at best. The second fish was on a chatter bait I was fishing just on the edge of some lily pads. The fish bit and ran for the cover. I pulled out about a two pound fish with about five pounds of vegetation. Wouldn't have happened on my spinning set up. Bottom line is get out there with whatever you can afford and go have a good time. The fish don't care what you are holding and neither will you once you land them.

Bass do not read color charts

Dude, put your thumb on the spool and rock the handle. It's that simple. Jeez.

From the looks of this page Northern IL sure is heating up!! Nice catches all. Here is my 19" 4# from today on my new Fenwick World Class 7'6" MH/F rod handled it nicely And a 16"

A friend and I once drove 70 miles home after a successful night fishing trip only to realize that our fish were still on a stringer back at the river. That was a long night.

I almost exclusively use the Alberto knot. I haven't had it slip on me yet, seems very strong, pretty easy to tie, and makes a very small join knot when it's done right that doesn't impede your casts quite as much.

Fished Champs yesterday. Wasn't our day for sure! Started out with a boat cutting in front of me and when I let off the gas, the nose fell and caught and grew me a complete 180. Scared my dad pretty good lol. Got to my first spot and hooked up with one over 5 on my 5th cast and she threw it. Caught a 5 and a 4 and about 50 1-2lbers. Then my dad hooked up with a good one. Got her inches away from the net and the hook just popped out. I dove in the water after her. Didn't get her of course. She was easily over 7, might have been closer to 8. Should have had 24-26lbs, but instead finished up with 15. Caught 60 or so fish and had fun, but was frustrating to say the least. My dad said it took a month to sink in that we won the first one on Rayburn, but only took a second to sink in that we lost this one as we watched that big one swim away.Congrats to Will Walker and Stephen Mitchell. Good guys and a heck of a sack. Sucks to catch 30lbs and come in second. Congrats to the winners also

Take your whole bag for a few trips. What ever you use, put in an empty box. Now build your inventory from those few baits.

http://www.dranckrazy.com/product/lure_bass/fike.html

I use snaps or speed clips sometimes for crankbaits. Everything else direct tie. For crankbaits, in my experience it does not hinder action in any way

I flush new spool bearings on casting reels and maybe clean the extra grease out of the inside of the pinion gear to improve casting but that's it. Spinning reels there's no point, extra lube in a spinning reel won't hurt anything.

If the braid is the mainline, I always use it to tie that knot. Never the leader. Hope I understand you correctly.

Keep it simple, bass haven't changed much in the last 45 years but the way we go about catching em', well, that's changed a bunch!!! A great starting point starts with the above posts, welcome to BR!!!

They will break a top water fisherman's heart every time.

@micahthorlawson and I fished Miola for a few hours Saturday morning. Not awful but not what we expected from Miola. Caught my first top water fish of the year on a spook and Micah put a few in the boat early on his new whopper plopper. Caught fish intermittently all up and down the lake with no real pattern to speak of. Biggest was a very skinny 17" fish that fell to a black and blue Big Head Wobbler up in the dirty water. Much like Bluebasser had at La Cygne, carp spawning everywhere. Got our hopes up driving across the dam to the ramp in the morning seeing all those blowups. Could have shot several if we had Micah's bow.

I don't do a ton of Senko fishing but the few times I "Have to", I'm using gear very similar to yours and It works for me. Unless I'm in very heavy cover & I've plus sized my gear, a standard wire Gamakatsu ewg hook works fine. 2/0 for 4 inch baits & a 3/0 for 5 inch baits. I make sure my hook is sticky sharp and not totally buried in the bait. 8lb test & a spinning rod doesn't have a ton of horse power but plenty to do the job when only skin hooking the bait & the hook is sharp. As for the hook setting "motion" - overhead or off to the side, I don't think that matters a whole lot. As long as the fish has the bait (and Hook) in it's mouth and it's not swimming straight at you, once fairly quick & sufficient pressure is applied - you'll come tight. Finally, if you're not doing so already - this is a must. A-Jay

I guess I am still to old school I do not really like the EWG style hooks. I use them some but seem to have much better success with the offset style worm hooks. I want that hook point un-obstructed as much as possible. I like it out there with nothing but the skinned plastic between it and the fish lips. 5" I would prefer a 4/0 maybe even a 5/0 if I know Im on some big ones. Definitely heavy wire, and as stated already cross their eyes.

You should split the pack and send half to me and half to Bluebasser, we will make sure you didn't get a bad pack and let you know what we find out fishing with them. But yes, ALL Keitech baits smell that way.

It's like a Musky ~ only smaller A Mini-Ski A-Jay

No giants, but not a bad day. Best of eight. Still don't know how to make these pics stand up....lol. Hootie

A couple years ago I was taking the boat out of the water after a night of fishing. I always take everything out before I load it up, then put all the stuff back in when the boat is strapped up. So after strapping the boat, and re loading all my gear, I left the lake. When I get home, as I'm unloading everything, I realize I made a huge mistake. Loaded everything EXCEPT my rods/ reels and tackle. I left it sitting in the grass at the boat launch. And this is thousands and thousands of dollars worth of gear. 5 rods/reels, 5 3700 boxes of lures, hundreds of tungsten bullet weights and everything. I hauled bass back to that lake so freaking quick, and luckily somebody had noticed it and put it in a safe place for me. Stupidest thing I've done but I really lucked out.

I have done a lot of things that are more stupid then that! The nice thing about Florida, is at 65 you don't need a freshwater license any more. There are benefits to being an old fart. I did go to Lake Okeechobee one time and left the kill switch at home. I couldn't understand why the big motor would not start. Like many others, I ran down a canal and noticed water in the bottom of the boat. No plug in! I have lunched the boat by myself, and forgot to anchor the bow line to the trailer. I watched while the boat drifted off down the canal. That's just a few stupid moments over the last 40 years. My mother once went to the bakery and then the post office with a bunch of bills to be mailed. She dropped the pie in the mail slot and came home with the bills. So it is a family thing!

Once I drove 1 hour 45 minutes to a lake with my canoe in the back of my truck. I had planned this trip for a week. I had never fished this lake before but I heard great things about it. Got there and put the canoe in the water, unloaded all my gear, pushed it off and jumped in only to realize I didn't bring my paddle. Yea, no paddle. So had to pack up everything and talked to a local to find the nearest walmart and bought a cheap paddle. Wasted 3 hours getting there and back cause the directions were not that great. Now I make a check list.

Went to Mississippi early this morning, hoping to hook some with frogs. No top water action, some shad rippling water here and there once in awhile. Chatterbait got me one in about 3 casts. After that went to spinnerbaits, different sizes and colors, no action. After me a some fellow chatted for a few minutes, I hit the deep water. Threw the swim jig with a 3.8 keitech trailer. Hooked up almost immediately, just a dink but he thought he was 5#. Tied on the bigger keitech swimbait, hooked up with another dink. Lost another. That's about all the action today, did throw a senko at the boat ramp, sometimes I get lucky there. Packed it up and came home early. p.s. weather was about 50 this morning, small cold front has come through the past few days. Rain last weekend and early in the week. Warmed up by 10am to 75. Water was 72-73.

There are few experts more capable of unlocking the mysteries involved with the spawning ritual and debunking the myths than Ken Cook. And it is by borrowing from his insight, as well as that of other spawning specialists (pros like Shaw Grigsbyand Guido Hibdon), that the average angler can begin to lock onto the spawn with consistent success. The key is gaining an understanding of the behavioral basics and timing of bedding bass. We act like we know that the males precede the females to the spawning areas, explains Cook, a six-time B.A.S.S. tournament winner. But I don't think that is true because both sexes seem to get very aggressive and very food-oriented during what we call the pre-spawn stage. The come out of the cold winter and the water warms up and their metabolism kicks in. Both sexes really become aggressive as feeders. Then there seems to be a time frame in which the females become less interested in feeding, but the males continue to bite because they pick up the aggressiveness of the spawn. Both are focused on the spawn right on through the spawning period. The females kind of back off of feeding and become less aggressive as the hormonal changes in their body take place as they prepare to actually lay their eggs. Conventional knowledge indicates that the male bass builds the nest, fans it out and guards it (zealously). Generally, a good male that is aggressive and active will attract more than one female to his nest and spawn with each of them. Along with that, an active female will spawn a number of times and, in most cases, ina number of different males' nests. She moves down the shoreline making it with different males. The male sits in one spot and waits for more females to come by. I think that is sort of a hedge (on the part of the female) against an infertile male spoiling the hatch of a good fertile female. So she spread her eggs around and he spreads his fertility around. That ensures a higher success rate for that spawn. That is important knowledge for fishermen, because most people think that once the female leaves the bed, only the male is left. It is true that the female only guards the nest for a short time before moving away, but other females will come to that nest. The other thing to keep in mind is that this isn't a long, drawn-out process. Once the water reaches the upper 60 degrees, which is ideal, it only takes about three or four days for the eggs to hatch. I think the male will spend about six weeks on the beds as the females rotate through, but the whole spawning season happens over three full moons, bringing a new wave of spawning with get full moon period. Cook emphasizes that understanding the spawning habits of the female bass will significantly improve your chances of catching some of the biggest bass of the year. He believes that the female often moves on and off of the bed to deposit more eggs (hatchery studies support this claim). Few females drop all of their eggs at once. Instead, they expel a portion and then move off to a nearbybreakline, bush or grass edge. It is this sporadic purging of eggs and the ability to spawn with different males on several nests that keeps the annual spring bedding season from being severely impacted by large tournaments. Texas Parks & Wildlife Department biologist Clarence Bowling says studies have shown that a female (when handled properly) will simply locate a bed and an available male in the area where she is released and complete spawning. GET A LOCK ON THE SPAWN By Tim Tucker

Don't look at them in the eye! First time being caught embarrassment! Seriously I haven't experienced this, sounds like something with their nervous system?

Ya'll just need to chill lakeside with an adult beverage of choice, wave lapping at the shoreline, cool breeze coming off the water, thumbs all tore up from a great day of fishing.... and scene....